1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to card connectors, and more particularly, to a card connector capable of guiding a small card.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among the card connectors, an ExpressCard card connector is provided with an L-shaped internal space for matching large and small ExpressCards, wherein the large ExpressCard is L-shaped and the small one is rectangular.
While a large ExpressCard is inserted, the card connector matches the large ExpressCard in shape, such that where the card is inserted will not be wrong. However, while a small ExpressCard is inserted, the opening of the ExpressCard card connector is larger than that of the small ExpressCard in width, such that the small ExpressCard is subject to no alignment with the correct position. For this reason, the ExpressCard card connector further includes an inclined guiding plate located internally for guiding the small ExpressCard during its insertion to the correct position. During insertion of the large ExpressCard, the inclined guiding plate is located below the relatively wider part of the card, such that the inclined guiding plate does not interfere with the card to avoid failure of insertion of the card.
However, the relatively wider front part of the ExpressCard card connector is open, such that there is though the inclined guiding plate, but while the small ExpressCard is inserted, the user may feel that the front end of the small ExpressCard is guided sideward to have the delusion that the card is inserted off-center.
To solve the above-mentioned problem, the present inventor proposed an invention, which was published as U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,972 and disclosed a guiding piece for guiding the small ExpressCard. Such invention indeed attains the effect of guiding the small ExpressCard during its insertion, but it can be more structurally simplified.